Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 61

It were well to come to the study of primitive and savage people, of nature-folk, with a mind purged of the thanks-to-the-goodness-and-the-grace spirit.

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It will not do for us to brush aside contemptuously the notions held by the Hawaiians in religion, cosmogony, and mythology as mere heathen superst.i.tions. If they were heathen, there was nothing else for them to be. But even the heathen can claim the right to be judged by their deeds, not by their creeds. Measured by this standard, the average heathen would not make a bad showing in comparison with the average denizen of Christian lands. As to beliefs, how much more defensible were the superst.i.tions of our own race two or three centuries ago, or of to-day, than those of the Hawaiians? How much less absurd and illogical were our notions of cosmogony, of natural history; how much less beneficent, humane, lovable the theology of the pagan Hawaiians than of our Christian ancestors a few centuries ago if looked at from an ethical or practical point of view. At the worst, the Hawaiian sacrificed the enemy he took in battle on the altar of his G.o.ds; the Christian put to death with exquisite torture those who disagreed with him in points of doctrine. And when it comes to morals, have not the heathen time and again demonstrated their ability to give lessons in self-restraint to their Christian invaders?

It is a matter of no small importance in the rating of a people to take account of their disposition toward nature. If there has been a failure to appreciate truly the mental att.i.tude of the "savage," and especially of the Polynesian savage, the Hawaiian, toward the book of truth that was open to him in nature, it is always in order to correct it. That such a mistake has been made needs no further proof than the perusal of the following pa.s.sage in a book ent.i.tled "History of the Sandwich Islands:"

To the heathen the book of nature is a sealed book. Where the word of G.o.d is not, the works of G.o.d fail either to excite admiration or to impart instruction. The Sandwich Islands present some of the sublimest scenery on earth, but to an ignorant native--to the great ma.s.s of the people in entire heathenism--it has no meaning. As one crested billow after another of the heaving ocean rolls in and dashes upon the unyielding rocks of an iron-bound coast, which seems to say, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther," the low-minded heathen is merely thinking of the sh.e.l.lfish on the sh.o.r.e. As he looks up to the everlasting mountains, girt with clouds and capped with snow, he betrays no emotion. As he climbs a towering cliff, looks down a yawning precipice, or abroad upon a forest of deep ravines, immense rocks, and spiral mountains thrown together in the utmost wildness and confusion by the might of G.o.d's volcanoes, he is only thinking of some roots in the wilderness that may be good for food.

There is hardly a poem in this volume that does not show the utter falsity of this view. The writer of the words quoted above, now in his grave for more than sixty years, was a man for whose purity and moral character one must entertain the highest esteem. He enjoyed the very best opportunity to study the minds of the "heathen" about him, to discern their [Page 263] thoughts, to learn at first hand their emotions toward the natural world, whether of admiration, awe, reverence, or whether their att.i.tude was that of blank indifference and absorption in selfish things. But he utterly failed to penetrate the mystery, the "truth and poetry," of the Hawaiian mind and heart. Was it because he was tied to a false theology and a false theory of human nature? We are not called upon to answer this question. Let others say what was wrong in his standpoint. The object of this book is not controversial; but when a palpable injustice has been done, and is persisted in by people of the purest motives, as to the thoughts, emotions, and mental operations of the "savage," and as to the finer workings within that const.i.tute the furniture and sanctuary of heart and soul, it is imperative to correct so grave a mistake; and we may be sure that he whose words have just been quoted, were he living today, would acknowledge his error.

Though it is not the purpose of these pages to set forth in order a treatise on the human nature of the "savage," or to make unneeded apology for the primitive and uncultured races of mankind in general, or for the Hawaiian in particular, yet it is no small satisfaction to be able to set in array evidence from the life and thoughts of the savages themselves that shall at least have a modifying influence upon our views on these points.

The poetry of ancient Hawaii evinces a deep and genuine love of nature, and a minute, affectionate, and untiring observation of her moods, which it would be hard to find surpa.s.sed in any literature. Her poets never tired of depicting nature; sometimes, indeed, their art seems heaven-born. The mystery, beauty, and magnificence of the island world appealed profoundly to their souls; in them the ancient Hawaiian found the image of man the embodiment of Deity; and their myriad moods and phases were for him an inexhaustible spring of joy, refreshment, and delight.

GLOSSARY

The study of Hawaiian p.r.o.nunciation is mainly a study of vowel sounds and of accent. Each written vowel represents at least two related sounds.

A (_ah_) has the Italian sound found in f_a_ther, as in h_a_-le or in L_a_-ka; also a short sound like that of a in li_a_ble, as in ke-_a_-ke-_a_, to contradict, or in _a_-ha, an a.s.sembly.

E (_a_) has the sound of long a in f_a_te, or of e in pr_e_y, without the i-glide that follows, as in the first syllable of P_e_-le, or of m_e_-a, a thing; also the short sound of e in n_e_t, as in _e_-ha, hurt, or in p_e_a, a sail.

I (_ee_) has the long sound of i in p_i_que, or in pol_i_ce, as in _i_-li, skin, or in h_i_-la-h_i_-la, shame; also the short sound of i in h_i_ll, as in l_i_-hi, border, and in _i_-ki, small.

O (_oh_) has the long sound of o in n_o_te or in _o_ld, without the u-glide, as in l_o_-a, long, or as in the first syllable of L_o_-no; also a short sound, which approximates to that sometimes erroneously given to the vowel in c_o_at, as in p_o_-po, rotten, or as in l_o_-ko, a lake.

U (_oo_) has the long sound of u in r_u_le, as in h_u_-la, to dance; and a short sound approximating to that of u in f_u_ll, as in m_u_-ku, cut off.

Every Hawaiian syllable ends in a vowel. No attempt has been made to indicate these differences of vowel sound. The only diacritical marks here employed are the acute accent for stressed syllables and the apostrophe between two vowels to indicate the glottic closure or interruption of sound (improperly sometimes called a guttural) that prevents the two from coalescing.

In the seven diphthongs _ae_, _ai_, _ao_, _au_, _ei_, _ia_, and _ua_ a delicate ear will not fail to detect a coalescence of at least two sounds, thus proving them not to be mere digraphs.

In animated description or pathetic narrative, or in the effort to convey the idea of length, or height, or depth, or immensity, the Hawaiian had a way of prolonging the vowel sounds of a word, as if by so doing he could intimate the amplitude of his thought.

The letter w (_way_) represents two sounds, corresponding to our w and our v. At the beginning of a word it has the sound of w (_way_), retaining this even when the word has become compounded. This is ill.u.s.trated in _Wai_-a-lu-a (geographical name), and _w_a-ha mouth. In the middle of a word, or after the first syllable, it almost always has the sound of v (_vay_), as in he-_w_a (wrong), and in E-_w_a (geographical name). In ha-_w_a-_w_a (awkward), the compound word ha-_w_ai (water-pipe), and several others the w takes the _way_ sound.

The great majority of Hawaiian words are accented on the penult, and in simple words of four or more syllables there is, as a rule, an accent on the fourth and on the sixth syllables, counting back from the final syllable, as in la-na-ki-la (victorious) and as in ho-o-ko-lo-ko-lo (to try at law).

_Aha_, (a-ha)--a braided cord of sinet; an a.s.sembly; a prayer or religious service (note a, p. 20).

_Ahaaina_ (a-ha-ai-na)--a feast.

_Ai_ (ai, as in aisle)--vegetable food; to eat; an event in a game or contest (p. 93).

_Ai-a-lo_ (to eat in the presence of)--the persons privileged to eat at an alii's table.

_Aiha'a_ (ai-ha'a):--a strained, bombastic, guttural tone of voice in reciting a mele, in contrast to the style termed _ko'i-honua_ (pp. 89, 90).

_Ailolo_ (ai-lo-lo=to eat brains)--a critical, ceremonial sacrifice, the conditions of which must be met before a novitiate can be admitted as a pract.i.tioner of the hula as well as of other skilled professions (pp.

15, 31, 34).

_Aina_ (ai-na)--the land; a meal (of food).

_Alii_ (a-li'i)--a chief; a person of rank; a king.

_Aloha_ (a-lo-ha)--goodwill; affection; love; a word of salutation.

_Ami_ (a-mi)--to bend; a bodily motion used in the hula (note, p. 202).

_Anuenue_ (a-nu-e-nu-e)--a rainbow; a waterfall in Hilo (p. 61, verse 13).

_Ao_ (a-o)--dawn; daytime; the world; a cloud (p. 196, verse 7).

_Aumakua_ (au-ma-ku-a)--an ancestral G.o.d (p. 23).

_Awa_ (a-va)--bitter; sour; the soporific root of the Piper methystic.u.m (p. 130).

_Ekaha_ (e-kaha)--the nidus fern, by the Hawaiians sometimes called _ka hoe a Mawi_, Mawi's paddle, from the shape of its leaves (p. 19).

_Haena_ (Ha-e-na)--a village on the windward coast of Kauai, the home of Lohiau, for whom Pele conceived a pa.s.sion in her dreams (p. 186).

_Hala_ (ha-la)--a sin; a variety of the "screw-pine" (Panda.n.u.s odoratissimus, Hillebrand). Its drupe was used in decoration, its leaves were braided into mats, hats, bags, etc.

_Halapepe_ (ha-la-pe-pe)--a tree used in decorating the kuahu (Dracaena aurea, Hillebrand) (p. 24).

_Halau_ (ha-lau--made of leaves)--a canoe-shed; a hall consecrated to the hula; a sort of school of manual arts or the art of combat (p. 14).

_Hale_ (ha-le)--a house.

_Hanai-kuahu_ (ha-nai-ku-a-hu--altarfeeder)--the daily renewal of the offerings laid on the kuahu; the officer who performed this work (p.

29).

_Hanohano_ (ha-no-ha-no)--having dignity and wealth.

_Hau_ (how)--a tree whose light, tough wood, strong fibrous bark, and mucilaginous flowers have many uses (Hibiscus tiliaceus).

_Haumea_ (Hau-me-a)--a mythological character, the same as Papa (note c, p. 126).

_Heiau_ (hei-au)--a temple.

_Hiiaka_, (Hi'i-a-ka)--the youngest sister of Pele (p. 186).

_Hilo_ (Hi-lo)--to twist as in making string; the first day in the month when the new moon appears; a town and district in Hawaii (pp. 60, 61).